Bush: Peace Is In Our Prayers, But It Is For Iraq To Decide

January 13, 1991|By The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A divided and solemn Congress on Saturday granted President Bush the authority to wage war against Iraq and expel its armed forces from Kuwait, the most explicit and sweeping war-making power given the White House in nearly half a century.

In votes that reflected the nation's conflict over how best to resolve the five-month-old military showdown in the Persian Gulf, the Senate voted 52 to 47 to give Bush the authority he sought to enforce a Jan. 15 United Nations deadline for Iraqi withdrawal, and the House followed, 250 to 183.

Those decisions came after both houses of Congress rejected proposals by Democratic leaders to delay war and continue Bush's original strategy of diplomatic isolation and international economic pressure against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The House defeated that resolution, 250 to 183. In the Senate the vote was 53 to 46.

In a statement moments after the final congressional votes, Bush said the action "unmistakably demonstrates the United States' commitment to the international demand for a complete and unconditional withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait. This clear expression of the Congress represents the last, best chance for peace."

Bush told reporters gathered at the White House that the message to Saddam was that he "cannot scorn the Jan. 15th deadline," and said that war, if necessary, would come "sooner rather than later."

Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, R-1st, Bateman was among the 250 House representatives who voted in favor of the joint resolution.

While the debate was lengthy, Bateman said he never questioned how to vote.

"I did not need to agonize over this. If anything, I think it was overdrawn in the rhetoric of the debate with Congress. I have followed this issue, this concern for many many months," Bateman said. "I never doubted what the Congress should do."

"I voted as I did because I thought it had the greatest likelihood in resulting in peace in a context that Americans would be willing to have peace," Bateman said, a context of strength and not concession.

"There are times when you have to be willing to stand up, be counted and to accept risk, to make sure that the Saddam Husseins do not misunderstand the signals," Bateman said.

Although the resolution approved Saturday was not a formal declaration of war, lawmakers from both sides said it was the functional equivalent. Not since late 1941, when Congress declared war against Japan and Germany, have the House and Senate given a president such unequivocal authority to send massive numbers of U.S. troops into combat.

The votes in the House and Senate capped three days of the most intense, solemn and emotional debate seen in the Capitol in many years. For the last few days, Congress has agonized over the momentous duty delegated to it in Article I of the Constitution, against a backdrop of two huge armies, bristling with modern weaponry, facing each other in the gulf.

Visibly conscious of that weighty constitutional obligation, somber lawmakers in both chambers sat in almost reverent silence Saturday afternoon as they concluded debate and cast what many said were the most troubling and important votes of their careers.

It was, said Sen. William S. Cohen, R-Maine, "an hour of doubt and an hour of destiny."

"There's no vote that is going to stay more in the minds of the people we represent than this vote today," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt.

In the Senate, members who normally vote while milling about the chamber sat motionless at their desks until their names were called, then rose to vote in hushed tones.

Reflecting the personal agony behind their decisions, many lawmakers recalled their wartime experiences and remarked on the service of relatives and friends among the more than 370,000 troops deployed in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf region since Iraqi forces marched into Kuwait on Aug. 2.

The resolution approved Saturday gives Bush congressional authorization to employ military force to enforce the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of "all necessary means" to compel Iraq to leave Kuwait if it has not voluntarily withdrawn by Jan. 15 - on Tuesday.

The competing measure, aggressively supported by House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, and other Democratic leaders, proclaimed that continued reliance on diplomatic initiatives and the international economic embargo was the "wisest course" for the present. That measure did not rule out use of force at a later date, but insisted that Bush return to Congress for specific authorization once he decided to begin a war.

The winning resolution also said that before U.S. troops begin offensive operations, Bush must inform congressional leaders that the United States has used "all appropriate diplomatic and other peaceful means to obtain compliance by Iraq" with the U.N. resolutions. But it requires no further congessional authorization for action.